Been looking for an excuse to exercise? Then look no further than the App Store, for a new app from Striiv — the people who brought us the “smart pedometer” — will count your steps and turn them into gold. Virtual gold, that is. Metaphorical virtual gold. Whatever. Rewards?
The app uses your iPhone’s GPS and other sensors to track your movements, steps, distance and altitude climbed, and translates these into achievements in MyWorld, a game environment. Here you earn rewards, and you can compete against other Striiv users.
It’s like an MMORPG, only you have to do all the grindwork yourself instead of buying a pre-made account that has been built up by workers in some Chinese sweatshop.
You can also track your calorie intake thanks to the new integration with MyFitnessPal, the excellent if horribly-named calorie-counting app/site.
I love the idea of the Striiv app, which gives you FitBit-like functions without having to buy hardware. The downside is that your iPhone’s battery-life could take a nose-dive if you use this all the time, whilst opting for the $99 Striiv hardware lets you track your progress (and earn lovely, lovely “gold”!) 24/7.
Source: Striiv
Thanks: Frances!
